


The Night of the Avatar

by AnotherShotofBourbon



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Detective Noir, F/F, Pulp, think if korra was Philip Marlowe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-02
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-15 20:36:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3461186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnotherShotofBourbon/pseuds/AnotherShotofBourbon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this pulp-noir adventure serial, Korra the Avatar is one of the best private detectives in the city, so it is no surprise when Asami Sato, the beautiful leggy heiress, comes to her with a job: stop her father's back alley deals with the triads to keep her father out of jail and her company afloat. But could it ever be that simple? After all, this is Republic City, nothing is simple here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. From the First Time She Stepped into the Office

A hot, dry wind blew across Republic City. A red wind, the wind of late summer, of hot days and hotter nights.

Republic City. Her city.

Korra looked out of her small office window, through the dark wooden slats designed to try and block out the sun and some of its heat. She’d spend hours just looking out at the city of exquisite pleasures and sometimes more exquisite pains.

But there was a knock at the door to interrupt her revere. The door said, “Team Avatar: Private Detectives, Protection, and Investigators.”

“Come in,” the short haired woman called, as she took her seat behind the desk.

In walked in a bombshell of a woman. She was tall, with legs that went on for days and very effectively displayed in her short black skirt. Her dark hair fell in soft waves that framed her perfect, sharp features. She had bright green eyes, that looked like jade and could probably cut like diamonds. Her lips were dark red, like she colored them with the blood of unfortunate individuals who crossed her path.

“Are you Korra?” she asked.

Korra took a deep breath, trying to keep her calm. This beautiful woman just walking into her office threatened to upset her carefully maintained balance.

“I am,” the tanned woman said with her feet on the desk. Her short hair hung loosely, barely touching the starched collar of her shirt. She wore a loosely tied tie around her neck.

“What can I help you with? Cheating boyfriend, husband?” The woman moved with a smooth grace, and took the open seat before Korra.

She chuckled darkly. “Spirits, no. What kind of woman do you presume I am?”

Korra raised an eyebrow, “Cheating girlfriend?”

The woman’s eyes widened ever so slightly, and she grinned slightly showing all pearly whites and canines, like a she-wolf who had cornered her prey in the dark. “No. Perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Asami Sato,” the woman said as she extended a pale, long fingered hand.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Korra said. “What can the Avatar do for you?”

“Do you know who my father is?”

Korra took her feet off the desk and leaned forward. “Hiroshi Sato, CEO of Future Industries. Inventor of the sato-mobile and one of the richest men in the city.”

Asami reached into her purse and pulled out a delicate silver cigarette tray. She pulled out one and offered the tray to Korra who shook her head. “You got a light?” she asked.

Korra nodded and stood up out of her heavy wooden chair. She crossed the impossible distance to the beautiful dame. Korra, snapped her fingers and small flame appeared at her fingertips. Asami smiled as she held the white paper between her blood red lips. The orange light danced in her sharp jade eyes which never left Korra’s own steady blue ones. Smoke rose in the space between them like sexual tension, it was there, it was palpable, and it covered everything they did. Korra sat back on the front of her desk.

“I think my father is working with the Triple Threat Triads. Selling them weapons,” Asami said, as smoke curled from her mouth.

“You could go to the police.”

“Korra,” Asami said, tilting her head slightly. “I love my father. He built this company with my late mother. It is the only thing of her that we have left. I don’t want to lose this too.”

“I see.”

“Look, I want to save my company, and my father. Things like this will get him killed. If you can stop this deal before it happens it will help me convince him to stop. I can’t go to the police because they’ll arrest him and ruin my company. I can’t do it internally either because of the same problem, some good samaritan can blow the whistle,” Asami continued. Her brilliant lookers never stopped looking at Korra. She was studying the detective, watching her for signs of deception or perhaps some other, baser emotions.

“Well I have a very strict confidentiality clause in all of my contracts,” Korra said with a wry, knowing smile. “Nothing that goes on between me and my clients, professional… or otherwise… will ever be disclosed to anyone.”

“Excellent,” Asami said as she breathed some more fire and smoke into her lungs, giving the Detective a few seconds to admire the ample rising and falling of the female’s chest. The sitting woman adjusted her stance so that one high-heeled clad foot rested against Korra’s knee. Excitement rose across Korra’s skin like a bad rash. She smiled like a shy child, an innocent smile that didn’t seem to belong on the face of the hardboiled detective and veteran. The smoke and sexual tension filled air was cleared when Asami said, “I’m more than willing to pay you, triple your usual rate. For the promise of your guaranteed silence.”

“For you, Misses Sato, anything,” Korra said.

“Miss, please. I haven’t had a worthy suitor in… some time.” With that the tall Asami stood up, already taller than Korra by several inches, made even more titanous and beauteous with her elegant heels. The space between them was an ocean, a vast distance uncrossable by any conventional means. It was also nothing, just enough space between them to contain warm breath and barely constrained skin contact. Asami’s hand, rough and worn, but also the kind of soft that expensive lotions bought, shook Korra’s own strong and confident hand.

“I’ll have my people draw up a contract and sent it to you,” she said.

Asami shook her head, causing little ripples to shake her thick, dark hair in little waves. “Detective, I’ll call you. I can’t have anyone at Future Industries know about this.”

“I understand,” Korra said as she handed the woman a business card.

“The deal is supposedly happening sometime this weekend, at one of the docks,” Asami said.

“I’m sorry I don’t know more.

“That, ma’am, is why you hired the best detective in the game.”

“I certainly hope so,” Asami said, her pale, elegant fingers brushing Korra’s check pulling heat up and out of her face in a blush that was most unbecoming of the Avatar. “I’ll call you soon.”

Then, without another word Asami Sato turned on her fashionable heels and left the office with the perfect click-clack of her shoes on the hardwood floor.

“Wow,” Korra breathed as the door shut itself.


	2. Sweet Smell of Success

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra is having some trouble tailing Hiroshi Sato, the man has no apparent vices. So her only choice is to call in the best pickpocket in the city to help, Kai.

Korra and Bolin had been tailing Hiroshi Sato for three days now. The deal was supposed to go down soon according to the beautiful and enigmatic client.

Bolin, was a large kid with shoulders like boulders and strong arms that can lift just about anything, sat in down heavily in the office as he pulled off his elaborate fake mustache. While it made him look absolutely ridiculous, it certainly made sure no one who be able to look passed the silly facial hair to recognize the private dick.

“This is more difficult than it has any right to be,” Bolin said in a frustrate huff based on the rich business man being the most boring tail they’ve ever had.

Hiroshi Sato, rich, older gentleman, had no vices, made no shadowy deals with men with long coats and hats pulled low. He didn’t frequent shady bars or enjoy the company of long legged women with loose lips and looser hips.

Korra sighed in frustration.

“I think it’s time we called Kai,” she said.

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Bolin asked. “He’s with the Acolytes now. If Tenzin ever catches wind that we called Kai for a job…”

“I know, I know,” Korra responded. “But do you want to try and lift Hiroshi’s schedule, wallet, or his appointment book from him without him or his three bodyguards noticing?”

Bolin shook his head violently. “Oh no, no. No. Noooo.”

“That’s what I thought. We need Kai, he could do this and Hiroshi would probably thank him for it later.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” Bolin muttered. “Just don’t get us caught by Tenzin.”

Korra picked up the rotary phone and spun the dial several times.

“Air Temple Island,” came a bored voice. “This is Kai, how may I serve you?”

Korra smiled, “Exactly the man I wanted to talk to.”

“Korra?”

“Kai. How would you feel about leaving Air Temple Island for a couple of hours and meeting me downtown?”

The suspicion in his voice was heavy like a wet blanket. “For what?”

“Can we just get lunch? I’ll tell you then.”

“Meet you in an hour.”

“Find me in Avatar Aang Park.”

Kai, hung up without so much as a goodbye.

An hour later, Korra was waiting in her suit and hat at the park dedicated to her old mentor Avatar Aang. The piece of greenery was one of the few bright spots in the weary grey concrete city. Korra liked the park, she thought the dark and modern city could use some more to add to the harmony of man and nature in the increasingly chaotic world that seemed so out of touch.

She only had to wait for a little bit for the ex-criminal acquaintance of hers.

Kai was now an air acolyte, but he was once the best pickpockets in the entire Earth Kingdom. He’d “run” into Korra on more than a couple of occasions, and always “just so happened to find” her wallet somewhere, all of the cash long gone. He even helped the detective out on a couple of occasions.

Once Kai had gotten in deep with the wrong sorts of people, and after Korra saved his life with some of her other acquaintances, he turned over a new leaf. The new leaf’s name was Jinora. She’d taken the street thief and turned him into a man of the cloth.

The former street urchin with the fashionably cut hair, walked up to the well dressed Avatar.

“A little hot for this outfit, doncha think?” Kai told her.

“I’m a business woman, I’ve got to look the part at all time,” Korra responded with a wry smile.

The acolyte laughed, “Whatever, Avatar. What do you want?”

“Come on, I’m going to buy you lunch.”

After getting some quality food, fried on a stick, Korra hooked Kai with a job, “I need a favor.”

“What kind of favor?”

“I need you to steal something for me,” Korra said without looking at him.

“Oh no, I’m done with that life,” he said. “Besides, Tenzin would kill me if he found out.”

“He won’t find out. Haven’t you been getting a little twitchy? I mean I saw you checking the pockets of everyone in line at the food stand. It isn’t even like I need you to lift anything dangerous or valuable. Just an appointment book.”

Kai smiled, she had him. “I want to know from who, and why.”

“It will be from Hiroshi Sato,” Korra said. Then she stopped talking. She couldn’t give away Asami’s secret. She hadn’t even told Bolin who they were working for. Honestly he was just excited to put on his disguises. “I won’t tell you who the client is.”

“Why not?”

Korra just shook her head.

“Oh, are they paying you your ‘hush money’ fee? For quadruple your rate do you also make them breakfast?”

Again, she felt the the heat rising in her cheeks, so she tried to play off the emotion as exhaustion from the heat and loosened her tie.

“Yeah, I mean no. I don’t make them breakfast. But I do keep everything confidential. Everything.”

“Ok, I’ll admit I’m intrigued. One more job. For you. But I’m going to need a favor in return,” Kai stopped to look directly at Korra.

“What kind of favor?”

“I want to take Jinora out, but Tenzin can’t find out. And he almost always finds out.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to keep Tenzin occupied for three hours so we can get off the island without being noticed.”

“Three hours, that means listening to one of his speeches. I’ll give you two hours. Two hours before I lose my mind.”

“Two hours, eighteen minutes,” Kai countered. “The History of Air Temple Island speech. I’ve heard it enough times I know exactly how long it is. You come there tomorrow night, and I’ll give you everything from Hiroshi Sato’s briefcase.”

Korra smiled. The little con artist had this planned for the start. He played the game expertly. He knew exactly what to get out of Korra. She smiled. She underestimated him, and she paid for it.

“Fine. Get me Hiroshi’s notebook and I’ll get Tenzin to give me his speech so you and Jinora can… sneak off,” Korra said with her lopsided smile and raised eyebrow.

“Give me twenty minutes.”

Korra waited down at the end of the street. The red clad kid stopped his target coming down the elegant marble steps of the Future Industries building. The titan of industry was shorter in real life, his stature wasn’t the stuff of legend, more like someone’s uncle.

Kai meandered slowly, up and down the street asking for donations for the numerous Air Acolyte charities. Eventually he found himself blocking the way of one Hiroshi Sato.

Korra watched from a distance, hat shading her eyes from the harsh Republic City summertime son. Kai was a natural. She spotted him lift Hiroshi’s schedule as he asked for donations, and his wallet after he gave him mere pennies from his vast fortune.

The little pickpocket finished collecting donations from the street before meeting with the detective at the end of the street.

“Well done,” Korra said. “But I’m going to need to give his wallet back. I don’t want him getting suspicious.”

Kai frowned but handed it over.

“You can keep the cash, use it for your date night.”

With his hand full of cash, Kai contemplated the bills, little pieces of paper that represented the blood and sweat of so many people. The cash was the gateway for so many things, so many vices and pleasures. It was the end game for the pickpocket for so many years on the street, but for the air acolyte it was not so much of a concern.

He smiled and stuck the cash into the little collecting tin.

“Just remember what you owe me.”

Korra nodded. “I’ll be there tonight.”

First she had to stop by the office.

Bolin was there waiting for her. “I got Hiroshi’s schedule,” she told him. “Go through it and see if you can find out when and where this deal is supposed to take place.”

“I will, but are you ever going to tell me what the deal is? Who are we working for?”

Korra smiled and shook her head.

“Sorry, but I’ve got to go see Tenzin.”

“Good luck!” Bolin called as he took the document from Korra as she went to pay for her favor.

Almost three hours later, after the appropriate greetings, speeches, and goodbyes, Korra returned to the office feeling more exhausted than she did after a full day of stakeouts.

It was late, the sun had traded spots with the moon, lights started popping on all across the city. It was like two different beings. One bright and hot and full of life and vigor during the day, the other full of pooling dark shadows cast by harsh artificial lights where secrets and dirty deeds were done without fear of being seen.

Korra smiled. She loved the city at night.

Back at her office, Bolin had already gone. He left the schedule and a note saying, “found it!” with a time and a location circled below it.

She smiled and put the schedule with the wallet in her desk.

After a few wonderful moments of looking through her blinds at the wonderful, dangerous, concrete jungle when there was a knock at her door.

“Come in,” Korra called.

“Korra,” Asami said as she entered the office.

Her long, perfect legs cut across the floor in seconds. She was wearing a short black cocktail dress without a back. Her neck and wrists were adorned with fantastic jewels, wealth on display. But none of them matched her own beauty of the shining green of her eyes that were highlighted so well or the deep, seductive red of her lips.

“Miss Sato,” Korra smiled. “Have a seat.”

Asami flowed into the seat like she was more water than woman.

“Have you any news?”

Korra nodded. She pulled out the wallet and the appointment book. “I found out the time and location of the deal. I’m going to take some associates of mine to stop the Triads when they arrive at the warehouse.”

“Is this the location?” Asami asking, picking up the note in her long, delicate fingers.

“We believe so, yes.”

“I see,” Asami said quietly, almost unsure of the words.

“Something wrong?” Korra asked.

“No, no,” Asami said, gently shaking her head. “Uh, oh, I have the contract for you, as well as the check for your first couple days work.”

“Miss Sato,” Korra started.

“Asami, please.”

Korra swallowed dryly. It was like her tongue had turned to platinum, something unbendable, and all because the beautiful woman asked to call her by her name. “Asami, you didn’t have to pay me now. Traditionally we only collect payment at the end of the job.”

“Oh, I’m… I’m sorry,” the confident women sputtered.

Korra laughed. The rich woman always seemed to know the plays, know the angles, but here she seemed more like a real girl. Woman, Korra corrected herself. Asami was a woman, maybe even one with a capital W.

“It’s ok. But again, you didn’t have to come all the way down here. You look like you just came from some society party you could be sipping expensive wine at,” Korra said.

Asami smiled. The crimson lips made the impression of a smile, but her eyes were sad, down turned. “Those parties aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. No one there is really worth talking to.”

“Oh Miss Sato,” Korra said as she stood up and sat on the front of her desk. “You didn’t have to make up a reason to come down here and see little old me.”

Asami blushed, color rising in her pale, perfect, high cheeks.

“I’ll keep that in mind... for next time.”

Korra smiled her perfect, little lopsided grin that threatened to do Asami’s heart in.

“Here are your father’s things,” Korra said as she handed the items over to the heiress. “If you could return them so he wouldn’t notice they are gone it would be a great help.”

Asami took the leather bound items and their fingers touched briefly. Cool pale hands, touching warm tan ones.

“I…” Asami started. “I think I should be going, before someone misses me.”

“Oh, you have a ‘someone’?” Korra asked awkwardly, suddenly caught off guard.

“Oh, no, no. No one will miss me,” Asami said, standing up suddenly. “I mean my people will miss me. Assistants and people and what not.”

“I see,” Korra breathed.

“I… I should go,” Asami said as she turned away from the perfectly sculpted detective. But then she stopped and turned. “Thank you Korra, for this.”

“For what?” she desperately wanted to ask, but her speech was stopped by the single finger on her chin and crimson lips pressed to her own.

It was over in a second, that stretched on for an hour.

“You’re welcome,” Korra breathed as Asami vanished like a puff of smoke.

Her lips burned with the passion she felt and froze with the absence.


	3. Double Indemnity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra calls up an old police contact to stop the theft of the Future Industries weapons. But there is something not quite right about the whole thing.

The next day, Korra picked up the office phone and dialed a number she had long since memorized.

The other end was picked up almost immediately.

“Mako,” came a professional voice.

“Jeez Mako, you seem eager today,” Korra said. “Picking up on the first ring is enough to make a girl think she’s been expected.”

“Korra,” he sighed. “What is it? I’m at work.”

“Why? Are you expecting something big and exciting to happen?”

“No…” he admitted, for a second sounding like a disappointed child.

“Beifong got you stuck on the desk still?”

“Yeah,” he groaned.

“Three years a cop and still stuck on desk duty.” Korra couldn’t help but smile. It would make it easier to entice the firebender into coming with her that night. “How would you feel if I offered you the chance to do something fun outside of your desk?”

“Korra… I can’t. I’m at work. I can’t just drop everything to help you catch a cheating husband or whatever.”

“First, that’s not this kind of job; two, I can’t tell you what kind of job it is, confidentiality and all; three, it would take place well after you clock off; and four, it isn’t even remotely illegal, in fact you’d be busting the bad guys who are doing the illegal things.”

Mako went quiet as he contemplated the offer. “What are we doing?”

“Just stopping the Triads from taking a couple shipments of weapons from a warehouse down on the docks.”

“When?”

“Around midnight. So what do you think? You want to get out from behind your desk and bust some heads with me, for old time’s sake?”

She heard a sigh, “Yeah I guess.”

“Bolin will be happy to see your grumpy mug again.”

“Korra, I’ve gotta go.”

“Ok, go back to work Mister Policeman.”

Several hours later, Mako arrived outside Korra’s office where the detective and Bolin were waiting.

“Bro!” Bolin called as he almost crushed in a massive hug.

“Hey Bolin,” Mako said, lightly returning the bone crushing hug.

“Mako! It’s been too long!”

“It’s been like a week. Hey Korra.”

“Hey Detective Mako. Ready to go bust some heads?” she asked.

“Am I ever. Where are we heading?”

“Warehouses on the docks. Warehouse number fifteen. I got word some Triads are going to be picking up a shipment of weapons,” Korra said. “My client wants us to make sure they don’t get the weapons.”

“Sounds good,” Mako said. “Who’s the client?”

Korra smiled sadly, “Can’t tell you. Confidentiality and all. Does this really matter? We just need to stop some bad guys. It’s not illegal, in fact we’d be helping you boys in blue.”

“Fine, fine, get in.”

“We’d better hurry up,” Korra said, leaping into the car. “Drive fast, or we’ll be late.”

Mako just shook his head and sped away.

Within a couple of minutes, they were at the Republic City wharfs.

The dirty, dingy, wet and moldy wharfs, where Republic City loaded and unloaded her wears. And where less than reputable people moved illegal merchandise in the late evening. Smuggling, trafficking and other illicit deeds were all done at the wharfs. Few places in the shining metropolis were as dangerous as the pier after dark.

Mako parked the car, and killed the lights.

“They’re over there,” Mako pointed to the truck surrounded by Triads. They were working on cutting through the fence that surrounded the warehouse.

“Mako,” Korra whispered. “What do you think about making that fence, an electric fence?”

The police officer smiled.

“Bolin, you disable the truck,” he said. “Korra, you bring down the Triads.”

“My favorite.”

Mako took his ready stance, and Korra felt the whole area get charged. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. Static electricity danced in short bursts around them.

Then with two fingers pointed at the fence, Mako unleashed a stream of blue lightning, the second it hit the metal fenced it arced. A hundred feet away where several Triads were cutting through, they were stuck by the electricity and jumped back.

Bolin planted his feet at the same moment and unleashed a large rock which connected with the front of the truck, crippling it. Korra meanwhile summoned a large wave water from the bay, which pushed the Triads away from the warehouse.

Once the bad guys realized they were under attack, they countered with fire and earth and water all their own.

Mako traded fire with an enemy firebender and earthbender. His considerable training kept him safe, but his opponents fought with rage and anger and fear of prison sentences.

His brother was working on taking out two of the Triads, a waterbender who had a preference for ice attacks, and another earth bender.

The Avatar fought three Triads, one for each of the elements.

The small group was able to hold their own, because they were after all professionals.

But all of that changed when a challenger they missed entered the fray. This bad guy wasn’t like the other Triads. No cheesey ‘expensive’ clothing to make them look like they came from money when all it did was scream how cheap they were.

No, this enemy was dressed all in black, like a professional thief. They also wore a mask, unlike the Triads. This person knew the stakes, they knew that there were inherent risks in the job. The Triads had assumed it would be an easy job without any risks, that’s what they were promised.

The masked person, snuck up on Bolin as he fought with the Triads. He managed to dodge every rock thrown his way, and took down Bolin with a few rapid punches. Suddenly, his arm went limp and his bending seeped away like water in a sieve.

“Chi blocker!” Mako yelled. But he was too late.

The blocker threw a bola, two heavy steel balls on either end of a steel rope. The heavy contraption wrapped around the officer’s legs and brought him down to the ground.

Korra turned to try and face the Chi Blocker, but the first thing she saw was a short stick charged with the electricity. When it connected with her body her muscles locked up, she was trapped in her own body. The Avatar was rendered immobile, and she collapsed on the ground.

When she awoke ten minutes later the Triads were gone.

“Hey,” Mako said as she stood up. The police officer had disentangled himself from the bola and had gotten Bolin back on his feet. “They’re gone. They ran off after knocking you out.”

“So we might have gotten our asses kicked, but we did the job?” Korra asked, rubbing her temples.

“I guess you can say that,” Mako said. “I’m going to call this in. We can arrest the Triads as soon as we pick them up. The Chi Blocker… that’s another story.”

“Are the Triads working with the Equalists?” Bolin asked. “That’s scary stuff.”

“I don’t know Bolin, I don’t know.”

“Well, good job everyone,” Korra groaned.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I plan on wrapping this up faster than originally intended. I'm not having as much fun with this as I was at the start, so I'll be cutting some it way down and just getting right to the point. *shrugs*


	4. Shadow of a Doubt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pieces are all there in front of Korra, its just a question of how quickly will she put them together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter so I'm posting it early.

Korra returned to the office early in the morning. She’d gone back to her apartment to shower and change, and figured since she was up already she might as well finish the paperwork for the Sato case.

She felt a twinge of guilt about abandoning the rich woman in bed. Korra would have loved to have stayed. But she knew the game, the stakes. It was as it had to be.

Her logic successfully pushed away the guilt for only a second. It returned the same as before when Korra spotted the two unfinished glasses of bourbon on her desk, one with the bright red scar of lipstick across the rim. And then the guilt doubled when Korra looked at the check.

Asami had overpaid her. Even accounting for the injuries sustained to all parties, she’d paid more than a grand over. Which in this business was like finding a maltese falcon.

She finished rearranging the things on her desk, when a very exhausted looking Detective Mako entered the office and slumped in the nearest chair.

“So who do you know that works for Cabbage Corp?” Mako asked.

“No one, why?” Korra asked, standing up. She went to the small coffee pot and poured two cups of the dark brown ambrosia. She handed one to the detective.

“Oh come on, the job’s over. I’m assuming you were paid for your silence but it’s over now,” Mako said. “Who was your Cabbage Corp contact that told you they were selling weapons to the Equalists? I’m just curious, I’m not actually going to haul them in for questioning.”

“What are you talking about?” Korra asked, getting mad and confused in equal measure.

“The warehouse, last night,” Mako said slowly, like he was explaining it to a small child. A tone that infuriated Korra to no end. “It was a Cabbage Corp warehouse. They were selling weapons to the Equalists. We stopped some Triads who found out about it before they could steal them. It explains why the Equalist was there.”

Korra shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

Mako didn’t seem to hear her. “When we tried to bust the Triads, they’d already been attacked by the Equalists. Not a single one left standing. All of them had been stripped of their bending, and more than a few were dead.”

“So what is happening with Cabbage Corp?” Korra asked. The pieces were starting to come together, slowly in her mind. She’d been played. By who, was still beyond her. But she suspected that the player was someone who was whispering her name into the shadows of the night while in bed together.

“We’ve started arresting everyone. Board members, CEO, CFO, everyone,” Mako said. “The company is basically dead.”

“And Future Industries stands to make a killing,” Korra muttered.

“What?” Mako asked.

“I just figured it out.”

“Figured out what?”

“Sorry Mako, I’ve got to go. I’ve got to see someone,” Korra said as she collected her coat and hat before running out the door.

Asami answered the door in a see through nightgown. It looked like the ghost of silk: there but see through and leaving just enough to the imagination to be impossibly enticing.

“Detective,” she grinned. “I missed you this morning.”

Kora frowned. “You knew, didn’t you?”

Asami’s eyes briefly flashed confusion. “Knew what?”

“That the warehouse wasn’t one of yours,” Korra said flatly. “That we weren’t saving your company, that I was helping frame Cabbage Corp.”

The rich woman’s eyes grew hard and distant, she was ready for a fight. If Korra was going to give her one, the sharp jade was ready to fight back.

“I figured the warehouse wasn’t ours when I saw the number,” she said curtly. “I didn’t understand it, but I figured you knew what you were doing. I didn’t put it together until after you told me there was an Equalist there last night.”

“You’re an Equalist,” Korra accused.

The rich woman’s eyebrows narrowed, her eyes became green fire. “I’d never support such an organization.”

“You only slept with me to try and keep me off guard.”

“God forbid I actually had feelings for you,” her red lips snapped, like a great hunting cat closing her jaws around the neck of her prey, how unlike those lips kissed her last night.

“Your company is supporting the Equalists,” Korra said. “Whether or not you’re involved I plan on taking your company down.”

Asami frowned but nodded. “If that’s what you think that you have to do.”

“It is what I have to do. The Equalists are bad news, and I think you know that. Otherwise you never would have hired me in the first place.”

“Exactly! I didn’t know that we were setting up Cabbage Corp! I swear. Korra, please believe me. I had to get you to investigate, to stop the Equalists getting those weapons. But I couldn’t just walk up to you as Asami Sato, heiress and Future Industries Vice President. How would that have looked to you? Would you have believed me?”

Korra wanted to say yes. She wanted to believe that should would have. But she knew herself too well, and dropped her gaze from those emerald, life sustaining orbs.

And that was all the answer Asami needed. “I’m sorry Korra, I really am. But everything that happened between us, I meant every second of it.”

The detective sighed, “I did too.”

Asami closed the distance between them and gave Korra a soft, simple, apologetic kiss. “I’m sorry.”

“What’s this?” asked a voice Korra didn’t immediately recognize. She spun around to face the voice but the only thing she saw was the enveloping blackness of unconsciousness.


	5. Detour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The penultimate chapter of this little saga. Korra has all of the puzzle pieces and now she just needs to see it through.

Korra regained consciousness in fits and starts.

“Answer me girl! Did you hire the Avatar? Did you sleep with her?”

It was like being lost in the fog of Republic City in the late fall. When it is cold and the dense, dank fog rolls off the bay and seems to infect just about every aspect of life in the city.

“I knew you were too soft…”

She saw an older man, a little on the rounder side making motions at the pale embodiment of what it meant to be a Woman.

“You’re wrong father.”

Korra blacked out again, whether for five days or five hours or five seconds, she couldn’t determine.

What she saw when she opened her blurry blue eyes, was Asami protesting… something… with the man she heard before, then suddenly a crackle of energy, and Asami fell limp.

The man started to drag her away.

“Don’t worry Avatar,” the man said. “I’ll be sure to take good care of my daughter. But I can’t bring both of you with me. So I’ll be sure to send Amon over to take care of you in short order. Enjoy what little time you have left with your bending.”

That's when Korra realized she was tied to a chair. Her still not fully aware mind began to panic, as she tried to brute force her way out of her bonds like they were something that could be beaten up or pushed around.

It sapped some of strength, and just as she started to sympathize with Sampson, Korra remembered she was a bender. A small flame like a lighter appeared at the tips of her fingers.

A few seconds of maneuvering and her ropes fell away. Korra stood up and rubbed her sore arms. Now that she was in full control of her faculties she knew that cashing after Asami and the man that could only be Hiroshi was fruitless at this point. They're long gone, and Korra had no way of knowing where they were going.

So she took the opportunity to search the apartment for clues. If Asami figured the whole thing out last night, maybe she planned for this. She was a smart one, Korra remembered. She always has a thing for the smart ones. And Asami was the smartest of them all.

Korra searched the apartment that looked and smelled of wealth. The kitchen and the dining room were immaculate. The living room was clean but it felt... Lived in. Like the way there were slight body impressions on chairs and pillows, and papers and remotes weren't lined up exactly right.

The bedroom was dark and cozy and smelled of sex. A smile tickled at the sides of Korra's lips at the memory as her insides knotted up in the memory of her accusations and Hiroshi's sudden appearance.

But there, on the nightstand was an envelope addressed to Korra.

She tore it open and began to read the elegant handwriting that looked more like calligraphy than handwriting.

"Korra if you are reading this then either you don't trust me as much as I wish you would, and I probably deserve it and I'm sorry; or something has happened to me and you found this. Either way I'm truly sorry. I hope you know that all of the things I told you last night, I meant. I sincerely meant every word of it. But either way, the evidence that you are looking for is probably in my father's private workshop in the mansion. You have my permission to go search it. If something has happened to me then I suggest you bring along your police friends. In this letter I have included my express written permission for them to search my home. Korra, I'm sorry. I hope you find what you're looking for and you can stop this menace. And my father. Asami."

Korra swore. The problem was that she did trust the woman. She would have gone to investigate the mansion by herself, but with everything she just saw with Hiroshi, she was going to need back up.

Twenty minutes later Korra found Mako at his desk.

"What's up?" He asked.

"So many things," Korra responded. "First of all it wasn't Cabbage Corp selling weapons to the Equalists, well maybe they were but Future Industries was behind it. I have written consent from Asami Sato to search the mansion for ties to her father and the Equalists. And lastly I'd like to report a kidnapping."

"What the hell happened after you left?" Mako asked.

"Hiroshi Sato kidnapped his daughter from her apartment after he incapacitated me. Call Chief Beifong and get a squad of police officers to meet us at the Sato mansion," Korra said.

"Alright alright," Mako said. "Give me a minute."

"We don't have that much time!"

"Chief Beifong," Mako said into his desk phone. "I have the Avatar here. She says that she has written permission from Asami Sato to search her mansion for Equalist ties. This was given before Miss Sato was kidnapped, by Hiroshi Sato."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter (which I'll probably post as soon as I'm done actually writing it)! And then I can move on to bigger and better things (I hate leaving stories unfinished. It physically pains me)


	6. Bang Bang Kiss Kiss

Korra refused to wait for the slow police department to move their collective asses. So she dragged Mako out of his prison of a desk and forced him to sit shotgun as the car rocketed across the grey veins that were the city’s streets.  
The large mansion stood out amongst the city’s grey concrete towers. The brown wooden structure and lush green lawns and gardens were a testament to the wealth the family had. They were able to afford pieces of nature in the manmade wasteland of the metropolis.  
Korra badly parked the car, driving was never one of her strong suits, and jumped out of the car, with Mako following closely behind her.  
A butler was already at the door waiting for them.  
“Miss Sato said this might happen,” the butler bowed, not once breaking the impressive level of professionalism his station required. “She told me to escort you two to her father’s workshop and then wait for the police to arrive.”  
“This girl really thought of everything,” Korra mumbled as they were lead through the luxurious mansion that was begging to be robbed with all of its valuables just laid out as if they weren’t worth thousands of yuans.  
“Here you are lady, sir,” the butler said. “I believe there is a secret passageway under the floor.”  
Mako shrugged and started rolling up the expensive fire nation rug. Beneath it was an impressive looking metal door. Korra had found a small button underneath Hiroshi’s desk that, when pressed, opened the entryway to the hidden work room.  
Below the floor was a long, dark tunnel. A tunnel wreathed in shadow that lead into a venerable hell.  
The Avatar and the loyal firebender followed the tunnel for several hundred yards beneath the Sato mansion.  
What they found at the end was enough weapons for an entire army. Shock gloves were being produced by the crate-full. The electric shock sticks were made en masse.  
But what truly shocked Korra were the rows and rows of metal contraptions that lined the back wall. They looked like bipedal, people almost, if they were crossed with metal lobsters. They looked deadly and silly all at once, like a clown with a machete.  
Korra suspected that if they were filled with as much innovation and weapons as the Satos were known for, even the metalbenders would have trouble with these beasts.  
Luckily the production plant seemed to be let out for the evening, or whatever time off Equalist terrorist get, Korra thought as she crept through the empty warehouse.  
She heard voices from the back of the warehouse. Mako tapped on her shoulder and pointed to a corner of the massive, underground Equalist warehouse. Lights were glowing from a small office.  
Korra nodded and the pair crept up to where they could hear the conversation.  
“I can’t believe you!” Hiroshi’s voice carried across the empty expanse.  
Asami responded something that didn’t quite carry.  
“You slept with the Avatar? You know what she is to our order!”  
“Our order?” Asami retaliated. “Our? This has only ever been about you! You never got over losing mom!”  
Korra and Mako crept closer.  
“This has always been about avenging your mother you ungrateful slut!” Hiroshi yelled. There was a sound of skin meeting skin in a violent act.  
“The man that killed mom has been behind bars for years!”  
“No! This is about tearing down the culture that has built a man like him! We must destroy the bending tyranny.”  
“How? By building them weapons and making them an army?”  
“Future Industries will do whatever I say! We shall build whatever is necessary to tear down this horrible government. To make things equal!” Hiroshi continued to rant. “I’ve been an Equalist since your mother died. And that means that so have you and my company! We will do anything we can to fight the good fight!”  
“How long have you had this secret underground warehouse under the mansion?”  
“For years! I kept it secret from you until now, because I was correct in assuming you were weak.”  
Suddenly Asami’s tone changed, from that of the frightening, captive woman to the confident player who had manipulated everyone around her into exactly the position she wanted them in, “I see. Well that should cover everything, right officer?”  
By that point Korra and Mako were close enough to see into the small office. Asami was seemingly tied to a chair, but she winked at Korra who crouched silently confused.  
Then Asami stood up, having apparently untied her bindings, grabbed one of the nearby shock-gloves and advanced on Hiroshi. He had turned his back on his daughter in shame, so he didn’t notice her advance until it was too late.  
She tased him into unconsciousness.  
Korra ran into the room followed by Mako as Asami said, “Officer, if you’d be so kind as to arrest this man. He kidnapped me.”  
“Uh, sure, but doesn’t this count as entrapment?” Mako said as he tended to the unconscious Hiroshi.  
“No, he freely admitted everything to me, a civilian, but you just so happened to hear. And you were here with my full permission,” Asami answered confidently. “All of this evidence should be more than enough to convict my dear father.”  
“Holy shit,” Mako said as he cuffed the unconscious Hiroshi Sato. “You thought of everything.”  
“Except for a decent change of clothes,” Asami smiled at Korra. She was still wearing that delicious little night gown. “But sacrifices need to be made every now and again.”  
“I’m sorry for not believing you,” Korra muttered.  
“I understand why you didn’t.”  
“Is there anyway I can repay you for everything you’ve done here?” Korra asked. Asami got herself kidnapped, set up her father, left a trail of breadcrumbs for the Avatar to follow.  
“I was thinking you can do what you did to me last night,” Asami said before kissing Korra.  
That was Mako’s que to make a big noise about hauling Hiroshi in for processing.  
Korra thoroughly ignored him as she leaned up into the kiss from the taller woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my best work. I started it and it was fun, and then suddenly it wasn't. But I powered through it. Is this chapter a cheap cop-out? Fuck yeah it is. At the same time though, I was never truly sold on the idea of Asami ever really being a victim or a damsel in distress. At least not in this instance.  
> Well its over now. I'm gonna go take a nap.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an attempt at Black Lizard style noir-pulp. Think Sin City's color palette and... nothing else (at least I hope I avoided Frank Miller's rampant misogyny and sexism...) .  
> The pulp, overwrought, over dramatic, sexy adventures of Detective Korra will probably continue on Thursdays.


End file.
